Composition Of The Floor Afar Triangle

Thermal infrared afar triangle ethiopia.

Composition of the floor afar triangle.

The barren deserts of the afar triangle constitute a basaltic ocean floor terrain on a divergent plate boundary that is above sea level because it lies over a hot spot. The depression is a plate tectonic triple junction. The afar triangle at the foot of the red sea is shaped by newly formed faults that cut unweathered basaltic lava flows on a newly emergent seafloor in an almost totally tectonic landscape. During the third stage sea floor.

It is the third most populous nation in africa with over 70 million people and the tenth largest by area. In the remote afar depression in northern ethiopia the african continent is slowly splitting apart and a new ocean is forming. It is bound to the west by the ethiopian plateau and escarpment to the northeast by the danakil block to the southeast by the ali sabieh block and to the south by the somalian plateau and escarpment. In the appalachians south of the glaciated knobs an ancient mountain system sheathed.

Normally geological processes such as the formation of rivers seas and mountains is a painfully slow process but in the afar triangle near the horn of africa this is happening at a staggering rate. The afar depression is an area of lowland plains split by fault blocks and dotted with shield volcanoes. And it is thought by some paleontologists to be the cradle of the evolution of humans see middle awash hadar. The afar triangle is bordered by high areas as shown on the topographic map.

The afar triangle the northern part of which is the danakil depression is part of the great rift valley of ethiopia and is located in the north of the region it has the lowest point in ethiopia and one of the lowest in africa. The region more and more resembles a sea floor where only the water is missing. Here the upwelling magma is of a characteristic composition low in silica content normally found at mid oceanic rifts. The southern part of the region consists of the valley of the awash river which empties into a string of lakes along the ethiopian djibouti border.

The afar triangle also called the afar depression is a geological depression caused by the afar triple junction which is part of the great rift valley in east africa the region has disclosed fossil specimens of the very earliest hominins. Includes all of djibouti the afar region in ethiopia as well as areas of eritrea and somalia. This geologic feature is one of earth s great active volcanic areas so the floor of the depression is composed of lava mostly basalt. Thermal infrared tir image color this aster thermal infrared composite image the first high spatial resolution multispectral thermal infrared data from satellite is of an area in the afar triangle about 60 km to the south of image 2.

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